English adopted divide from Latin dividere ‘to force apart, remove’ in the Middle Ages. The maxim divide and rule, recommending that a ruler or government set factions against each other so that they will not unite against the powers that be, is also of Latin origin: divide et impera. People often attribute it to the Renaissance Italian statesman and political philosopher Machiavelli ( see Machiavellian), but in fact he denounced the principle. Dividend (Late Middle English) comes from the same Latin root, and originally meant ‘something to be divided’, while individual (Late Middle English) comes from the Latin for ‘not divisible’. See also widow